I am humbled and honoured to be the winner of the 2025 Dorothy Hewett Award for best unpublished novel in Australia. My novel, The Hair of The Pigeon, a love story based on true events, was selected from over 330 novels.
Thank you for recognising my work. As a journalist who has spent time listening to people from all walks of life, I am grateful that not only mine, but their stories get a chance to be told. In Australia we have the privilege of peace and a chance to consider lives different from our own. And now, with current events around the world, I think this is a wake-up call for all of us to understand the stories of those of us who yearn for justice. My wish is this book is received in the manner in which it is given. I have always been drawn to the stories that bind us and give us the sense of belonging to each other; that which we dream of but struggle speaking about. This book, this story, began almost 20 years ago. I never imagined that this was the way it would come to life.
UWAP says: The judging panel for the 2025 Award was Tony Hughes-d’Aeth, Caitlin Maling, James Jiang and Kate Pickard. The judges were heartened by the number of submissions to the Dorothy Hewett Award, well over 300 – across all categories: fiction, narrative non-fiction, and poetry. The judges of the award commented the following about the winning fiction manuscript: “In the tangled streets of millennial Damascus, Ghassan and Sama are childhood friends. As they grow into adulthood in the convulsions of the Arab Spring, violence erupts intimately into their lives. The fatality of these days, between regimes and in the shadow of violent expulsions, plays out with the precision of a primal scene. This gripping novel speaks powerfully to the moment we are in.
